2019 German DT Joseph Darkwa Talks Indiana Offer, Recruitment
Indiana is looking to use the remaining space in its 2019 recruiting class to add another defensive linemen to the roster. Its search has led it to an overseas prospect in Joseph Darkwa, a defensive tackle from Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia who picked up a scholarship offer from the Hoosiers on Saturday.
"I was really excited and happy when (defensive line) coach (Mark) Hagen called me and offered," Darkwa told TheHoosier.com via email.
The offer was the beginning of the communication between Darkwa and the IU coaching staff.
"He told me that I was very athletic and would fit into the Indiana D line," Darkwa said of Hagen's feedback.
Darkwa said he has been playing in in Düsseldorf for two years. His American football team, Düsseldorf Panther U19, has a rich tradition, having won 15 German championships.
"It has been a fun journey, we made the finals back to back but lost both," he said.
Darkwa has been working with Brandon Collier, who founded PPI, a recruiting database for international American football players, has been coaching in Europe for seven years and is the current Dutch National Team coach. Collier offered additional background on Darkwa as a player and person.
According to Collier, Darkwa was born in Germany and his parents are from Ghana. He grew up playing soccer most of his life before transition to American football approximately 4-5 years ago.
"He's a big, athletic kid," Collier told TheHoosier.com. "He's 6-5, close to 270 right now. Long, twitchy. He's a kid, like I've told every coach I've spoken to, if he was playing in Indiana, Texas, Florida, he'd probably be a high four-star recruit and have pretty much every offer in the country."
Thus far, Darkwa has accumulated offers from Coastal Carolina, Connecticut, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Towson and Virginia. He said UCLA has also shown interest.
Collier said the only reason Darkwa's recruitment didn't take off sooner was because he expected Darkwa to be in the class of 2020. However, that changed once Darkwa got clearance from his high school in Germany to graduate in July instead of October.
"He's a first-year impact type of player," Collier said. "I know you guys from the recruiting sites don't really know how to rank these kids because you don't know the competition level, but I think he's a high four-star recruit."
Collier posts workout videos of PPI players on the database's Twitter account. He published the one of Darkwa below on Dec. 28, and soon after heard from Hagen.
"(He said Joseph is) the No. 1 three-technique on his board," Collier said.
Whether Indiana gets an official visit remains to be seen. Darkwa, who already used one of his five official visits on a trip to Rutgers in early December, said that he currently has all of his remaining four official visits set. According to Collier, that schedule includes UCLA on Jan. 11, Virginia on Jan. 18, and Texas on Feb. 2. If Darkwa were to visit Indiana, it would potentially be the weekend of Jan. 25.
"If something changes I would definitely think about coming to Indiana," Darkwa said.
Wherever he ends up, he'll bring intrguiing potential.
"With his size, frame and athletic ability, he has NFL ability," Collier said. "I think for sure he'll be a kid coming in right away and playing. He is, in my opinion, I haven't seen every defensive tackle in this class, but the ones I have watched, I think he's up there in the top 10 defensive tackles and I think he'll be an impact player from day one."
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